IP Designer Series – The Return Activity Node

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The Return Activity node in IP Designer is useful for stopping the flow when specified conditions are met, and returning information to the calling process, such as a trigger.

In this example, we have an error connection between the file access node and the Return Activity Node.  In this case, if there is an error in the File Access Node, information will be returned to the calling process by the Return Activity Node.

The Return Activity node can return four fields: Error Code (integer), Information Code (integer), Return Message (string), Output Data (string or binary).  These four fields can be populated with variables or with hard-coded information.  In the example, we chose to populate them with the codes and messages generated by the File Access node.

As you can see, the Return Activity Node is a very efficient method of stopping a process and returning the results to the calling application.

Infor CloudSuite Distribution Provides Transformative Functionality

Infor’s newest update includes the application on Infor Xi™ technology stack, making for a design that is more responsive and contains big data analytics and machine-learning. This will strengthen it at its core and entails for various application-level enhancements. In addition, it will also improve areas like electronic data interchange built-in functionality, order entry, and rebate processing. This update and all of its improvements will bring forth major UI improvements. Christian Ostiguy, VP of operations, DrillMex, says “with Infor CloudSuite Distribution, we will gain access to the latest and greatest version, automatically, and it will provide us with the flexibility needed to grow our business and offer better service to our customers.”

For Full Article Click Here

5 ERP Trends to Know About This Year

With the ever-growing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, it’s no doubt there will be more innovations in this management system this year. Here are a few ERP trends to be familiar with for 2017.:

  1. The Move to SaaS – the difference between traditional ERP applications and SaaS-based apps can be thousands of dollars.
  2. SaaS-Only and Mixed ERP Options – Often times you can integrate SaaS to a Mixed ERP tool so that you won’t be starting from scratch.
  3. ERP for the Subsidiary – companies are testing the waters of the SaaS ERP by implementing it into one part of the company before replacing the ERP whole-hog.
  4. Competition from Disruptors – SaaS ERP vendors targeting large enterprises is stark competition for ERP leaders.
  5. The Internet of Things – Be looking to large enterprises to begin building out their IoT) ecosystems and leveraging ERP tools to take action on the data created by this connection.

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IP Designer Series – The Custom Activity Node

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The Custom Activity node in IP Designer is useful for implementing functionality that is not available in the “canned” IPA nodes.

Infor delivers four Custom Activities with IPA. These are “Encoding”, “Assert”, “ComponentTest”, and “FlowRunner”. You can also create your own custom activities by creating Java Bean classes and adding them to the Grid.

Custom Activities are an advanced piece of IPA and should be configured by a developer.

To add a Custom Activity to the grid,

  1. Create a jar file for the supporting classes
  2. Place the jar file you created in the $LACFGDIR/LPS/jars folder
  3. In the Infor Grid, click the gear icon 
  4. Select Applications > Your Application
  5. Click Edit Properties 
  6. Under the LPA heading, find pfi.customActivity.beans and click the “value” link
  7. Add the full classname of your Java Bean class
    1. Class names are separated by semi-colons
  8. Restart the IPA node
  9. Launch IP Designer
  10. Add a Custom Activity node, and click to refresh the list. Your activity should be displayed now.

To use your Custom Activity, select the configuration name for email notification. Select the Activity from the list, then choose the action from within that activity. Then configure your input variables.

Tipping Point for Cloud-ERP and Big Companies

Within the past couple of years, only-mid-sized companies were making the switch to cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suites. But now, it’s become an IT imperative. More recently, mid-size and large companies are seeing the benefits of this and ditching the old ‘legacy’ software in the past. When the cloud was first introduced, many CIOs of large companies thought it was too risky, but we’ve now come to see that the cloud-services have proven to be more secured against cyberattacks than the corporate data centers. These large companies not only acknowledge this, but are realizing that while these old legacy apps are still functional, they’re just not enough to compete in the digital business environment of today.

For Full Article Click Here

Brooklyn Nets Form Wide-Ranging Partnership with Global Software Leader Infor

 

Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BSE) and global software leader Infor, have formed a fully-integrated partnership with professional National Basketball Association team the Brooklyn Nets. The wide-ranging partnership covers four major areas: team performance, fan experience, team business operations, and jersey patch sponsorship. The partnership with BSE is Infor’s first combining analytics and sports in North America, with similar relationships already established in Europe and Asia – Ferrari and Super Rugby team the BNZ Crusaders, respectively. Infor will develop a one-stop digital hub to assist Nets General Manager Sean Marks and the team’s Basketball Operations department generate stronger results on the court. As part of the partnership, Infor will have its logo featured on the front left of the Nets game jerseys starting the 2017-18 season. The partnership will also include major Infor branding at Barclays Center for all Nets and New York Islanders games, as well as other events, as well as the team’s practice facility in Brooklyn.

View Press Release Here

WorkOutLoud Offers First & Only Social Platform Specifically Designed to Secure Customer Engagement that Drives Profitable Growth

Former Lawson Executive & Minneapolis Director of Startup Grind Launch WorkOutLoud Offering the First and Only Social Platform Specifically Designed to Secure Customer Engagement

PRESS RELEASE

After 2 full years of imagination and development, early customer incubation, beta releases, and now more than 20 customers that are helping us prove out our idea for a comprehensive customer community platform and the value within… we are announcing our company to the world. It’s time to #WorkOutLoud #CustomerCommunities

 

Read Full Press Release Here

IP Designer Series – The Branch Node

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The Branch node in IP Designer is useful for an “if-then-else” type of logical statement.

After adding a branch node to your process, make sure the node is connected (using the connection tool) to previous nodes. That way, all your variables will be available. Then, click on the branch node and add conditions. You can add many conditions, and you can use variables and/or javascript code to create the comparisons.

In this example, we have very simple conditions:

When you create a connection from a branch to another node, you will be prompted to select the condition that should lead to that node:

NOTE: If you need to connect your branch node to a different node, DO NOT DELETE the connection. That will delete your entire condition!!! Simply grab the end of the arrow and move it to the correct node, or right click on the connection to unlink it and create another connection to the correct node.

Introducing A Free Tier of LSFIQ Lawson Security Reporting

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Today we are introducing a free tier of our super popular security reporting application.

LSFIQ is the only cloud-based application that enables you to upload and analyze your Lawson Security data with ease and with no software to install. Simply upload two easy-to-create files into your LSFIQ account and get access to dozens of incredible reports that give you instant, detailed view into your security data. And now there is a great new free version.

It has taken us a while to make the freemium vision come to life but we are proud to announce that as of 2017, you can use our application completely free with no obligation to ever buy.

Learn More About LSFIQ and Sign up for your Free Tier today!

Take Me to LSFIQ

Update the Micro Focus License Manager

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In Lawson version 10.0.8, you may encounter performance issues followed by the dreaded “error occurred outside of IOS” notification.  If you run into these issues, check your event viewer.  If you see an error like the one below, you may need to reinstall the Micro Focus license manager.  Here are the steps to do install it.

  1. Go to ftp://asqcust:AbaEsdu7Rf@amerftp.microfocus.com/supportdownload/CES/lmsetupx64.msi and download the msi
  2. Place the file on your Lawson application server
  3. On the Lawson application server, stop the Sentinel RMS License Manager service
  4. Double-click the installation file and follow the steps
  5. The Sentinel RMS License Manager service should be restarted after the installation is complete